Web Standards Creativity: Innovations in Web Design with Xhtml, Css, and DOM Scripting

by Rob Weychert, Andy Clarke, Derek Featherstone, et al.

This is the ultimate in inspirational, high-level web design books -- an innovative book for the very successful but highly contested web standards market. There is no attempt to teach the basics CSS or JavaScript -- competency is already assumed. This book brings together 12 of the world's most talented web designers to share their secrets with the reader. The techniques discussed cover the full spectrum of essential web design topics, but not...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590598032
• ISBN13: 9781590598030
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic

Let's start with a warning - this is not a book for beginners. To appreciate it (apart from the "coffee table" usage someone else mentioned), you have to know a lot about CSS, HTML and have decent knowledge of JavaScript and DOM. But once you're there and have a few web design projects behind you, you'll really appreciate all the nuggets in this book. The ideas presented in it, as well as the explanations (in a juicy voice that was obviously not bowdlerized by editorial policies that so many other publishers have) are simply priceless. I also highly appreciated the approach of not going into meaningless details; the text is full of URLs containing background information, additional articles, design guidelines, CSS tricks etc. To all the authors & the publisher: Congratulations !!! This is one of the Web design books I've seen ... why can't I give you 6 start?

Highly inspiring

The authors of this book have really done a wonderful job. The cases they discuss are as original as they are useful for real-world application. It was refreshing to read a book about web standards that started not completely at the bottom. The authors will require some knowledge of HTML and CSS prior to reading this book, and that's good, since there already are so many beginner books available out there. What struck me mostly was the inspiration I got from various examples in the book. It made me want to test the code and experiment further with the explained principles. I can recommend this book to anyone who is already familiar with web standards and would like to have an entertaining read to broaden their thoughts on certain design problems.

Fantastic.

If you're a web developer, and you've already got the basics of javascript/DOM scripting, semantic XHTML and CSS, then this book is for you. It's the first book I've found that shows best practices for integrating all three of these basic technologies. As web developers we can often fall into the trap of being comfortable in one technology and then trying to solve every website problem with that technology. This book helps bridge the gap and begins to show how to use each of these technologies for what they're really good at--no more, and no less.

Best web design book yet

This is the best web design book that I have found yet. Inspiring examples that use practical applications and will fuel your desire to learn more. This book is also beautifully designed... usually I highlight in my books but not this one... I will only tag it with sticky notes. Not a beginner's book. You may understand some of the example but most concepts, I feel, will be lost on the reader. If you are new to web design, I would suggest reading beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional, then CSS Mastery, then getting into this book. As a web designer, I would suggest that you learn CSS... and learn it well before you start building pages for clients or you may find yourself rebuilding may of your pages.

A Masterpiece

Every now and then, there a book comes along that really makes you stop and take notice. We review plenty of tech books on this site, and each one is a tome of knowledge in its own right. Web Standards Solutions though, is a work of art unto itself. Each page is full-color, with entire pages varying in color theme from the next. It feels as though you're thumbing through a high-end design catalog. I'd rank it right up there with The Zen of CSS Design. Not only will this book serve to grace your coffee table, and make visitors "ooh and aah" over your fancy role as a web designer, it is also chalk full of helpful code and graphics tips. As with any multi-author book, each chapter has its own distinctiveness. Rather than attempt to down-play this, as with tech books, the chapters reflect the personalities of the author, both in tone and design. Here's a run-down of each chapter's topic... Chapter 1 by Simon Collison In this chapter, Colly covers the design process behind two of his acclaimed designs. He shows how to have solid markup, but at the same time create a distressed looking website in keeping with a band's musical style. The sites that are discussed are: The Libertines and Dirty Pretty Things. Chapter 2 by Dan Rubin This chapter is also about a band website, Lifehouse. Dan explains the CMS limitations he was up against, and how he creatively used CSS to wrangle the underlying XHTML under presentational control. He covers everything from his initial sketches > to Photoshop > to the final product. <br /> <br />Chatper 3 by Ethan Marcotte <br />Departing from the band topics, Ethan goes in-depth on the planning, design and code process that went into remaking New York Magazine. He covers some adept code-forking that was necessary to get IE5 to behave on Windows as well as Mac. Thankfully, IE5 has since been dropped from the A Grade list. <br /> <br />Chapter 4 by Andy Clarke <br />The king of malarkey cuts loose in this chapter, and walks you through creating a lighthearted, fictional site called WorrySome. He digs into the modern method of using CSS attribute selectors to target highly specific areas of your markup. He also makes mention of Dean Edwards IE7 script, which forces Internet Explorer 5 + 6 to respond to these more advanced techniques. <br /> <br />Chapter 5 by Jeff Croft <br />Jeff covers everything PNG, showing how to make use of this great, loss-less format. One thing that has slowed PNG adoption, though it is superior to both GIF and JPG, is that Internet Explorer doesn't do PNG alpha channels very well. He shows helpful tricks to get these bad browsers working correctly, and explains how they were used on the 49 ABC News site. <br /> <br />Chapter 6 by Mark Boulton <br />This chapter is all about designing on a grid. A hold-over from the days of print design, this organizational technique lends itself well to web design. The grid involves logical layouts of content, as well as attention to typographical detail. If one chapt